Harper Lee to publish long lost To Kill a Mockingbird sequel

[soulsinging]

http://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-31118355

Interesting story. Apparently she wrote it before the classic and was asked to expand on Scout's flashbacks. The result is an American classic. It's also the only novel she ever published until now. I'm very curious... usually long-delayed sequels are sad cash grabs (Closing Time, the Catch-22 sequel, comes to mind), but since this is contemporary it could very well be of comparable quality.

Does this book get read overseas, or is it only a US thing?

 

[Michael Colton]

I am also interested. This level of attention, a book as legendary as the 'first' one, her age now and deciding to do it? Many questions, some hesitation. We know so little about her as a writer that I fear that it will not be able to live up to the attention it will get. And how could it, really?

 

[Ray McCarthy]

Unfortunately it's not edited and "To kill a Mockingbird" is edited from/based on this. It's the manuscript she submitted before she wrote "To kill a Mockingbird". I wonder was this really her own idea.

I'm reminded of "Villette" and "The Professor". Except it's not quite the same.

Does this book get read overseas, or is it only a US thing?

I've read "To kill a Mockingbird" and seen the film (I think it may even have been a school text at various times in UK and Ireland). It's not controversial in the way it was then, today.

It smells of exploitation.

Perhaps it was originally rejected because of content and actually it's rather good, rather than needing re-rewritten. My understanding is that it's not really the sequel of "To kill a Mockingbird" but that "To kill a Mockingbird" is a re-write of it concentrating on the flashbacks.

Like most of Kafka's work, I expect it would have been published after her death anyway, like Charlotte Bronte's "The Professor".

 

[Cat's Cradle]

Well, I'm still excited! I will re-read 'To Kill..' and then get this when it comes out in July. I want to see where Scout is in life, and more time with Atticus cannot (in theory) be a bad thing.

I think I'd rather have this older manuscript be published, btw, than to have had Harper write a sequel in the last few years...that to me would seem more like exploitation, IMO. Just my 2 cents! CC

 

[Michael Colton]

Unfortunately it's not edited and "To kill a Mockingbird" is edited from/based on this. It's the manuscript she submitted before she wrote "To kill a Mockingbird". I wonder was this really her own idea.

The editing bit is a good point. Even though she is Harper Lee, one wonders how involved the publishers will be in the content this long after it was written. Part of the reason DFW's posthumous book worked so well, compared to most, is that when he took his own life he left out all of his chapters for the book with notes for his long-time editor and friend. Everything was very organized and set up so that his editor could put everything together and consult his final notes on the project. That is fairly rare. According to his widow, he had every finished chapter stacked neatly on his home desk with notes attached and his desk lamp aimed directly at them so she would know it was ready to go to his editor.

 

[soulsinging]

The editing bit is a good point. Even though she is Harper Lee, one wonders how involved the publishers will be in the content this long after it was written. Part of the reason DFW's posthumous book worked so well, compared to most, is that when he took his own life he left out all of his chapters for the book with notes for his long-time editor and friend. Everything was very organized and set up so that his editor could put everything together and consult his final notes on the project. That is fairly rare. According to his widow, he had every finished chapter stacked neatly on his home desk with notes attached and his desk lamp aimed directly at them so she would know it was ready to go to his editor.

DFW= David Foster Wallace? That's kind of a sad story...

My understanding is this wasn't so much rejected, as they asked her to re-write it focusing on Scout's childhood. It does seem likely to be incomplete, but at least it's not her attempt at a new work, which I would view as much more suspect. According to her, the manuscript was (she thought) lost or trashed after the re-write, but her friend and lawyer still had a copy stashed somewhere. It only recently resurfaced and she only decided to publish it after having a few people read it and confirm that it's worth being made public.

I guess we'll see!

 

[Michael Colton]

DFW= David Foster Wallace? That's kind of a sad story...

My understanding is this wasn't so much rejected, as they asked her to re-write it focusing on Scout's childhood. It does seem likely to be incomplete, but at least it's not her attempt at a new work, which I would view as much more suspect. According to her, the manuscript was (she thought) lost or trashed after the re-write, but her friend and lawyer still had a copy stashed somewhere. It only recently resurfaced and she only decided to publish it after having a few people read it and confirm that it's worth being made public.

I guess we'll see!

Yeah, David Foster Wallace. It has been long enough since his passing that his widow is starting to agree to interviews, doing some writing of her own. A lot of the details of his life near the end are coming out now. I really feel for her -- not just in the usual sense of the unimaginable grief of being a sudden widow, but the degree to which she was hassled after his death. She, understandably, seems a bit bitter about all the people that referred to his death as making his work more poignant. She said people to this day have no idea how horrifically ill he was and what his life was like. There are times to examine the literary nature of suffering and there are times to just respect the privacy of a widow and leave her the frack alone. Paraphrasing, but in one interview she mentioned the frustration of people continually asking her what it was like to be around genius. He was her loving husband, not a genius she spent time with.

 

[Connavar]

http://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-31118355

Interesting story. Apparently she wrote it before the classic and was asked to expand on Scout's flashbacks. The result is an American classic. It's also the only novel she ever published until now. I'm very curious... usually long-delayed sequels are sad cash grabs (Closing Time, the Catch-22 sequel, comes to mind), but since this is contemporary it could very well be of comparable quality.

Does this book get read overseas, or is it only a US thing?

Well here in Sweden she is more famous for the 1962 film version and Gregory Peck than the novel and maybe she seems like a modern classics one hit wonder. The big US classic authors we read in school, are big here are the 1800s/early 1900s classics Poe,Jack London etc and then later Fitzgerald,Faulkner,Hemingway. Harper Lee,Steinbeck and co are not so important here.

This didnt even make the literary,culture news like when Toni Morrison has a new novel out.

 

[Ray McCarthy]

@Connavar
Who is Toni Morrison? I know all the others.

 

[Michael Colton]

Toni Morrison is one of the American greats that is still working. She has a new novel coming out this year that a bunch of us are waiting for. While it is unfortunate to reduce someone to a few words, she is primarily known for her powerful handling of race in America within her fiction.

 

[AnyaKimlin]

We did it in about 2nd Year at senior school (about 13 or 14)

 

[steve12553]

The articles I'd read about this "new" work indicated that it was quite suspicious that the announcement occurred a mere 3 months after the death of her sister (who was her lawyer and advisor). There were also comments indicating that she had reached a state of dementia that caused her to sign anything placed in front of her to do so without the ability to read and understand what she was signing. This book is likely being released against her wishes when she was able to express them. The book may not be wonderful but it may be interesting all things considered.

 

[Michael Colton]

The articles I'd read about this "new" work indicated that it was quite suspicious that the announcement occurred a mere 3 months after the death of her sister (who was her lawyer and advisor). There were also comments indicating that she had reached a state of dementia that caused her to sign anything placed in front of her to do so without the ability to read and understand what she was signing. This book is likely being released against her wishes when she was able to express them. The book may not be wonderful but it may be interesting all things considered.

Indeed, I have read and heard these same things since I first commented in this thread. It is very likely that someone is making money off of her now that she no longer has someone to protect her wishes.

 

[AnyaKimlin]

Although her sister didn't think her so far gone she needed to make power of attorney provisions for her. Being a bit eccentric, naive, old and disabled is not automatically the same as being unable to make the decisions. I don't know her or her family background and can only say as a reader I am interested and excited enough to try it even unedited.

 

[steve12553]

Although her sister didn't think her so far gone she needed to make power of attorney provisions for her. Being a bit eccentric, naive, old and disabled is not automatically the same as being unable to make the decisions. I don't know her or her family background and can only say as a reader I am interested and excited enough to try it even unedited.

The other thing concerning this that I read was that her sister was 103 years old when she passed. In 2012 though, she was the oldest attorney in Alabama still practicing law at 100 years old.(According to AL.com/news). Intriguing story all the way round.

 

[AnyaKimlin]

The other thing concerning this that I read was that her sister was 103 years old when she passed. In 2012 though, she was the oldest attorney in Alabama still practicing law at 100 years old.(According to AL.com/news). Intriguing story all the way round.

Which is why I am sure if her sister was that concerned she would have taken more action to prevent anything untoward. Clearly, she thought her sister annoyingly naive but maybe didn't consider her mentally incapable either. There are elements that are concerning but not sure I trust the media to be honest about this.